Rugs and Stain Removal in Los Angeles

We receive many rugs for stain removal in our rug gallery. We have a workshop next to our rug store on La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles and take care of these stains. There is one big problem and that is the customers who treat the stains with unknown and untested chemicals at home. These chemical are multi-purpose stuff which in many cases do not remove the stains and will make it more difficult for us to do stain removal from Oriental and area rugs.

Before we start working on the stain, we try to analyze and find out about the nature of the stain as each case needs its own treatment and a different solvent to neutralize the stain. In many cases, we have to dye the removed spot since it may fade away after the stain is removed.

David who runs the wonderful RugRag blog has commented on situation like these on one of my previous posts and I cite it here. I totally agree with David who is a third generation rug enthusiastic:

"The instinct when something like this happens is to treat the stain as quick as possible.... However, this often leads to the hasty decision of using any and all cleaners available. This is a big mistake because many of these all-in-one cleaners have unnecessary chemicals: "blanket cleaners" formulated to treat as wide a variety of stain as possible. The problem here is that it often results in the stain becoming colorfast".

I also include few photos of the stained rugs we recently received. Like many other cases, these rugs were treated by their owners with different chemicals.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Blood Stain Removal From a Persian Kerman Rug

A customer brought in a hand knotted Persian Kerman rug with human blood all over it. His father had his nose bleeding and spelling the blood on the rug. They had treated this rug with chemical at home and when a rug is treated with chemical stuff to take care of the stains, this will make it more difficult to remove the stains.

Anyway, we worked on
this beautiful Arjomand Kerman rug and removed the blood stains. The customer happily picked up his rug.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Repairing and Cutting a Persian American Sarouk Sarook Carpet Rug in Los Angeles

A UCLA math teacher brought in an old American Sarouk carpet which was in a very bad condition. This type of Sarouk rugs were made in the early 1900 in Iran in the city of Arak, then called Sultanabad for the American market. That is why they are called American Sarouk. This rug was torn and was falling apart. He said that they had it for a century in their family. There was no way of preserving the rug since all the foundations on different sides were broken. Besides, he said that it was too big for them and they had no place to fit the rug in. The size of the rug was 9 x 12 foot.

We made a nice and clean rug with the size of 5 x 8 after it was professionally cleaned. His wife did not like fringes at all, so we made the bindings and gave the rug handmade selvages on all four sides. The math teacher who looked very anxious and picky at the beginning liked the job.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Educated Rugs Customers in Los Angeles

I know a little bit more about rugs than my average rug customers. Therefore I would like to share my knowledge of Oriental carpets with them. That is why I have set up a table in my rug gallery on which I have samples of the yarns we use for making Gabbeh and Qashqai rugs with hand spun wool and vegetable/natural dye. We also have many types of free booklets and literature on this table to give to our prospects and clients who visit us in our rug store every day.

An educated customer can make a better decision in buying Oriental, Persian or area rugs. He or she can also use our other services better if educated. Services such as professional rug cleaning, rug repair, water damage restoration, bleeding and stain removal and rug appraisal. If our customer knows about the advantages of having a good quality rug pads and underlays, he/she will consider buying rug pads from us as well.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Hand Made Turkish Kilims and Making Cushions

A customer called me two weeks ago and had two old Turkish kilims. One of them was damaged and could be repaired. The other piece was badly damaged and was torn apart and not repairable. We agreed on making few cushions out of this damaged old kilim which belonged to this customer's father and had sentimental value for her.

The cushions came out so good with the zippers and custom made sizes of 14 x 14 and 16 x 16 inches. We had a red heavy duty fabrics from the inside to protect the kilim from falling apart. The customer was overwhelmed and so happy with our job. She and her wonderful husband were poets. Richard signed and gave me one of his books. This is what he wrote on the first page of his poems book: " To Khosrow, A poet in his own milieu. With our gratitude. Richard & Kaaren" This meant so much to me. I was so excited to see this kind of reaction and happiness on my customers' faces.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

My Sons in My Rug Gallery On La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles

This summer my Oriental carpet business was slow, but I had the great pleasure of having my two sons with me in my rug store most of the times. My younger son Kash (his real name is Khashaiar and a bit difficult for his American friends to pronounce) took a U.S. history class and passed it with A+ and came to my Oriental carpet gallery whenever he had time. Kash is entering 11th grade at Beverly Hills High School. My older son Ashkan did not take any Summer classes since he did not have that many courses to choose from. He studies Information Technology and Information Systems at the California State University Northridge here in Los Angeles. He has his own web designing and Online Marketing company called IT Chair. He helped me whenever he had time and I needed him. Ashkan has designed our company's web site. Both sons are rug lovers and rug passionate. They are both good at selling rugs and sometimes ask me not to interfere with their sales when they have a customer! They are third generation in Persian rug business and are always ready to learn more.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Persian Sarouk Carpets, American Sarouk Antique Rugs Los Angeles

Two weeks ago, a couple brought an antique American Sarouk carpet with the size of 6 x 9 foot to our rug gallery. They had bought this beautiful Sarouk rug for around $250 from an estate auction!! The rug was worth around $5,000. They had taken it to another rug dealer who had said the rug was worth $10,000 and he wanted to charge them more than $2,000 to fix the fringes and repair the selvages.

Apparently the rug was sent to a rug cleaning facility in the past and they had attached a prefabricated fringe to the rug and had glued it to the rug. Doing this of rug repair was very unprofessional. The couple gave us the job. We unraveled roughly one inch from each end and the secured the fringes which were part of the foundation of the carpet. To have a balanced design, we also unraveled one each from each side and made brand new wool selvages. Now the rug look perfect and ready to be used and enjoyed for many more decades if it is properly taken care of.

Tehran Persian Carpet Exhibition

Tehran to Host Persian Rug Exhibit

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- The 17th exhibition of hand-woven Persian rugs is to kick off Friday Aug. 22, 2008 in an area of 20,000 square meters (roughly 200,000 square feet) at Tehran Int`l Fairground.

"At least 370 suppliers as well as customers from 35 American, European and Asian countries are expected to attend this exhibition," Head of Iran National Carpet Center (INCC) Morteza Faraji was quoted by press TV as saying. On the fourth day of the exhibition, a festival will be held to display the finest hand-woven carpets presented at the exhibition.

Iran is a leading exporter of hand-woven carpets. Persian rugs are highly sought out for their intricate design and skilled craftsmanship. The country produces about five million square meters of carpets annually of which 80 percent are sold in international markets.

Currently one million people are directly involved in Iran`s carpet industry. The country earned $750 million from carpet exports in 2007. The exhibition will run until August 28.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Oriental, Persian, Area Rugs Carpets and Kilims for Sale in Los Angeles

During the past few days, many people have stopped by with rugs in the trunk of their cars for sale. These rugs have included Persian American Sarouk rugs, Hand knotted Persian Tabriz rugs, Turkish kilims, Isfahan rugs, Silk Qum rugs, Indian rugs and many more.

I always tell them this is not the right way of selling a rug and rug dealers should not be your first choice in this journey. Before your start selling your rug, try to know your rug and if you're not sure about the details of your Oriental carpet or area rug try to get an appraisal. If you do not exactly know what you have, how could you sell it? After you get some information on your rug, try to find an end user and a private customer. Selling on the Internet maybe a better option than putting the rug in the trunk of your car and driving around the town to find a potential customer, a dealer who has tens of unsold rugs himself!!

I will write more on this in the near future.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

CIE Coalition of Iranian Enterpreneurs in the Greater Los Angeles

Coalition of Iranian Entrepreneurs (CIE) in Los Angeles has regular meetings in a Persian cuisine restaurant in Beverly Hills called the Camden House, every Monday evening from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The coalition was established more than 20 years ago and was inactive for the past few years. The new board took over a year ago and made the organization active. We had a new election two months ago and I was elected as a board member. CIE acts like the Iranian Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles. In our weekly meetings, we have a one-hour networking session starting at 6:00 pm accompanied by hot tea, and Persian h’ordeauve. Guests talk to each other and exchange business cards and their contact information.

Persian dinner is usually served at 7:00 pm. Around 7:30 pm, the president of the society, Dr. Shay Maghameh welcomes everybody and announces the program. Then I as a board member introduce the new guests who participate in our event for the first time to the audience. Then we have an economic news section for 5-10 minutes and afterwards, we have a keynote speaker for a lecture of about 1/2 hour followed by a 10-minute question-answer section. Roughly, around 50-60 members and guets attend our regular Monday evening meetings. The number of the participants depends on the topic of the speech we have on each Monday.

Last night, we had a panel of three who talked about real estate and its present condition in Southern California. I forgot to mention that the annual membership fee is $100 and each member pays only $20 to attend each meeting. This covers the h’ordeauve and the wonderful Persian food provided by the Camden House Flame Restaurant, and of course enjoying the fun informative and educational lectures and presentations which are delivered in Farsi, the Persian language. In some occasions, we have had non-Iranian guest speakers such as Sheriff Lee Baca of the Los Angeles County.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Hand Knotted Persian Carpet Designs

Some rugs have a central medallion in the center with 1/4 of that medallion on each corner. Some of our customers like this kind of design. Other rugs may have an overall design in which flowers and motives are repeated all over the carpet. It is a matter of taste and there is no technical or professional advantages attached to one of these designs over the other one. Here you can see some samples of the designs. These rugs are all hand knotted Persian carpets with cotton foundation and lamb's wool pile.

Oriental Carpets and Rugs and Cleaning in Los Angeles

Persian Oriental and area rugs market has been slow lately in Los Angeles. Instead, we have been busy with Oriental carpet cleaning, repair, stain removal and appraisal. This brings income and traffic and some of the customers who give us the job for Oriental carpet cleaning, repair, and appraisal, buy rugs from us.

Few days ago, a customer stopped by with three rugs he had bought in Afghanistan while he was there on a mission as a surgeon. Two of his rugs were Afghan rugs made of wool pile on wool foundation. One of his rugs was made in Pakistan on cotton foundation with New Zealand wool.

We also received several rugs from a customer who lives in a city 120 miles north of Los Angeles. He brought in several rugs for cleaning and one fine Persian hand knotted Tabriz carpet for water damage restoration. There was color bleeding all over the rug. They had a water pipe brokage at night at their dining room while they were asleep in the bedroom. It was the next morning when they got up and saw their beautiful Tabriz rug floating over the water in the dining room. We took care of the bleeding.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Abbas Sayahi A Master Dyer of Natural Colors and Dyes

Abbas Sayahi is a great master dyer who lives in Shiraz, Iran. He has a big dyeing plant and workshop in the suburb of Shiraz (Sultanabad) where he uses different local herbs and plants to dye the yarns for different customers who deal with hand spun wool to make Persian hand knotted carpets. The good thing about Abbas is that he likes to share his secrets with those who are ready to learn. This comes from his teaching background. He was a teacher in tribal and rural areas of of Fars province for many years. He never tries to make a big deal out of vegetable dye process. In one of his recordings, he registered 400 different shades of natural dyes including black. We have been working with Abbas Sayahi for the past 30 years and he has done great dye jobs for us.

To read more about Abbas Sayahi and his son Parham, visit this link:

http://www.persiancarpetguide.com/sw-asia/Rugs/Dyes/Dye997.htm

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085